The present invention relates to displaying web pages in a browser window of a terminal and especially to displaying such web pages, which comprise a frameset for dividing the content. Thus, the invention relates to a method, a system and a terminal for implementing this. Further, the invention relates to a conversion method, a conversion unit and a computer software.
Content pages (later web pages) transferred in data networks, such as Internet pages, can be browsed to some extent with several types of portable terminals. When web pages are browsed with small portable terminals (e.g. mobile phones, PDA devices, communicators), whose display is limited in size, the web page being browsed must often be modified to fit the display. In some situations, for example, images or text can be modified into a simpler form, for example, by decreasing the type font or by displaying the image as a link to the image in question. There are also other elements on web pages, which should be handled before displaying on a display of the above-mentioned kind. One such element is a so-called frameset, which is used to divide the content displayed on a page. The frameset comprises of frames, by means of which the web page becomes clearer and easier to maintain. Loading a divided content on a browser can, in addition, take less time than loading the entire content.
A simple example of the use of frames is displayed in the following. In this example, the web page comprises a two-frame frameset:
<FRAMESET COLS=“28%, *”><FRAME NAME=“Frame1” SRC=“Content1.html”><FRAME NAME=“Frame” SRC=“Content2.html” ></FRAMESET>
The above-presented is a very simple example of a frameset; naturally it is possible to use other attributes for describing the frames as well. In the example, <FRAMESET> determines the ratios according to which the frames displayed on the web page divide the display. In the example, <FRAME> specifies the frame more specifically and informs where the content for the frame in question is fetched from. This type of a web page is typically arranged on the display of a computer (PC) or the like, in which case when the browser window corresponds to the size of the display, the entire content of the page is visible. It is, however, to be noted that when the user himself/herself resizes (decreases) the browser window, the content of the frames does not fit the display entirely. The same problem, but even more clearly, becomes apparent when this type of a page is displayed on a physically smaller display, such as, for example, in the above-mentioned terminals, whose browser window is small due to the limitations of the display.
In order to display a frameset on the display of a mobile terminal, some solutions have already been developed. The known web page browsers of wireless terminals can display all the frames within one browser window, in which case the user can himself/herself select which frame content is opened to the entire browser window. It is also possible to view the page in such a manner that all the frames are visible at the same time, in which case one must select which frame content one wants to browse. In addition to this, it is possible to change the size of the frame dynamically, for example by grabbing the edge of the frame and moving it. It is obvious that this type of solutions increase the amount of user inputs and, in addition, for the part of the first alternative, the depth construction of the web page disappears, in which case the amount of content provided by the page is difficult to perceive.
Correspondingly, some known web page browsers of wireless terminals (especially simple text-based browsers) display the frames as text-based links. The user can select the frame to be browsed from the corresponding link <A HREF=“content1.html”>Link-to-content1</A> to the frame content. Implementing this is easy, but as in the previous example, because of the increasing user inputs the solution is not necessarily very usable. In addition, the file names of the frames are typically very nondescript, in which case searching the desired content becomes difficult. When naming the content of a frame with some simple file name, the textual information provided by the file name is often worse than that of the frame itself.
FIG. 1a presents in a very simplified manner how the view to a web page P comprising frames F1, F2 can change when the web page is transferred from the actual browser window D1 to a browser window D2 smaller in size in FIG. 1a. The content C1, C2 of the frames F1, F2 does not fit in the browser window D2, in which case a part of it remains undisplayed. Browsing this type of a page with a terminal, and especially with a terminal that does not comprise a pen or mouse user interface becomes very difficult and more complicated. The situation of the example presented in FIG. 1a is fictitious; it is to be noted that in reality the display D1 proposed for displaying frames can in relation be even larger than the one presented in FIG. 1a and resemble the situation of FIG. 1b more.